Sighing, I nodded. “Thank you, Dr. Gabriel. Are you going to become my new primary shrink?”
“Do you want me to be?” he asked blankly.
I frowned. “Why do you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Act as if you’re willing to do or become anything I need you to be?”
“Because I am. That’s what people do in relationships.”
I rolled my eyes. “We aren’t in a relationship.”
“Only because you’re so damn stubborn.”
“Thank you very much.” I bowed to him, and he knocked on my head.
“Did you just…”
“What?” He grinned, taking a chicken bite and stuffing it into his mouth. Leaning over, I smacked his head and he smacked my thigh. “Do you really want to start a war right here, Donny?”
“Do you have alcohol in that magic bag of yours? I feel like I’m going to need it to survive however long we are here.”
He reached in and pulled out two bottles. “Red or white?”
“I thought you knew everything—”
“Both then,” he cut me off to say. Gabriel uncorked them both and then handed me one bottle. “We’ll switch back and forth.”
“Are you trying to get me drunk?
“Do you change when you get drunk?”
I nodded, lying. “I get much more violent.”
When he reached over to take the bottle away from me I moved back, drinking straight from the bottle for the first time.
“I’m going to regret this, aren’t I?”
“Here’s to being young and stupid,” I said and drank, and so did he.
“If we are going to be young and stupid, then let’s go all the way,” he said, rising up and pulling me up with him. He spun us around.
“Dance with me.”
“No.”
“Dance with me, please. I love this song.” he pouted, holding me closer and swaying with me.
“What’s the name of the song?”
He paused.
“You’re such a liar.” I couldn’t help it; I laughed.
GABRIEL
I learned four important things about her today.
One: She could be very sweet when she wanted to be.
Two: She loved the band, Saturn Sun.
Three: She was a weird dancer.
Four: She didn’t become violent when she was drunk; she simply got sleepy.
I wished I had more time to find out all of her quirks and habits, but I didn’t. Tomorrow was the day everything had to come together and I had to have her decision. We couldn’t be normal longer than this.
“Where have you two been—”
“Wyatt, I went to TLSM. It was so lame and so fun at the same time.” Dona giggled…yes giggled. Leaving Wyatt to just stare, I carried her into their house on my back. Shock covered Wyatt’s face.
“Are you drunk?”
“Me?” Dona asked, shaking her whole body and making carrying her much harder for me. “A little tipsy, but a bottle and half of wine will do that to a person.”
Right, I’d learned five things. Donatella could drink wine like water, and even I, who loved a good strong red in the evening, could hold no candle to her.
“Gabriel?” she asked in a sweet voice right into my ear, making me shiver. “Thank you for the ride, but I can walk.”
“That’s what you said before—ouch.” I sighed, putting her down on her bare feet. Where the sandals I had given her had disappeared to, I had no idea.
“Peace and good night.” She actually gave us both the peace sign before heading up the stairs, leaving Wyatt and I standing alone. Ethan came out of the elevator and nearly did a double-take when she waved to him and said goodnight with a smile on her face.
“What’s the matter with her?” he asked us both.
“That’s what I want to know.”
“She had fun. That’s it. We had a fun time out together,” I answered, walking up the steps as well.
“She isn’t going to marry you,” Wyatt called out from behind me. The uncertainty in his voice gave me hope.
“We’ll see. But if I were you, I wouldn’t bet on it.”
EIGHTEEN
“So…
you want to be tough?
You want to be rebellious?
You want to be a badass?
Then show your heart to everyone…
EVERYONE.”
~ Michael Xavier
GABRIEL
“Let’s try to avoid bullets today,” I said to my refection before I stepped out of my room. Part of me expected to see Dona waiting outside, ready to strike swiftly. Luckily, my expectations were not met and my trip to the elevator and down to the dining room was a quiet one. I could hear muttering and saw two familiar men standing in front of the door, eyeing me like dogs… Well they are dogs.
I snickered at the thought and decided to name them. “Morning, Rocky, Coco.”
They looked at me as if I was insane and were about to say something when I nodded to the door. “I would open it myself but, ahh…” I reached up to my arm. “I think one of you might have pulled my arms back too far…not to mention the bullet.”
“The bullet our boss gave you.”
“The one that didn’t kill me, yes I know. The door…” I waited and the big Irish one opened it but held his hand out to stop me from entering the room.
“Sir. It’s him,” Rocky said.
“Him has a name,” I asserted but he ignored me. He nodded to the other guard before opening the door wider for me to enter. The Callahans all sat, Dona included, in a different arrangement than before. Ethan was at the head, with Wyatt on his right and Ivy on his left. Donatella sat next to her and Helen her other side. The butler nodded for me to sit two seats down from Wyatt; they were putting distance between us. Dona drank some sort of hangover juice, rubbing the side of her head.
“Gabriel,” I said to Rocky. He looked confused. “My name is Gabriel, not him. I’m saying this for your sake, Rocky. I’m sure your boss prefers you to be more descriptive when announcing his guests. I mean, you wouldn’t want him to seem rude and ill-bred, now would you?”
He glanced to Ethan and I watched from the corner of my eye as he continued to eat his breakfast as if he couldn’t hear us. Meaning he wouldn’t allow Rocky to wiggle out of accepting this defeat… It would look bad on him.
“Excuse me, Mr. Gabriel,” Rocky said to me.
“Leave us, Grayson,” Ethan finally said to him and nodded to me. “Gabriel, welcome. We didn’t expect you’d been joining us for breakfast.”
“Your expectations are correct,” I said when the doors closed behind me. “I’m not here for breakfast.”
Casting the helmet in my hand over my shoulder, I walked around the table aiming directly for her seat. She ate her toast calmly, as if she didn’t notice I was in the room, so I leaned over until my lips were touching her ear and she froze, “I came for you. Let’s go.”
“Gabriel, my brother invited you eat at his table.” Wyatt scowled at me, tearing his bread with more violence than necessary. “You wouldn’t want to seem rude and ill-bred rejecting that offer, now would you?”
Standing up straighter, I rested on Dona’s chair. “Seem? Wyatt, didn’t you notice? I am rude and my breeding is quite questionable.”
“I did notice.”
“Then why bother talking?”
He bit his tongue and I snickered.
“You aren’t off to a good start this morning,” Dona finally spoke before sipping her drink.
“How so, my love?” I asked, making Ethan pause for the first time. I ignored him and focused on her.
She inhaled. “Not only are you late, and I abhor tardiness, but your greater offence is expecting that I’ll stop everything I plan on doing today to go off with you again. I already have a migraine.”
“I cannot be late to a function I didn’t plan on attending as I told the maid this morning, which is why you were not ex
pecting me. And I was not expecting you to stop what you have planned today. I checked with your assistant; we’ll be done in time and I’ll drive you over. As for the migraine… Well, was the wine at least worth it?”
“Wait, go back; you did what?” She looked over her shoulder at me. “How do you even know who my assistant is?”
I smiled, reaching down to steal a piece of her bacon. “Did you know your grandmother is one hell of a tough negotiator? I had to promise our first daughter would be named after her. I told her you might want to name her after your mother so she said she would settle with Melody-Evelyn but it must be hyphenated because she would not be regulated to a shitty middle name.”
“Why am I not surprised by that?” Ivy muttered behind Dona’s back.
I wasn’t sure what was funnier, remembering that conversation or the look on her face; it was a mixture of surprise, shock, and horror. Dona raised her hand to speak but then paused, shaking her head.
“If this your idea of trying to woo me…”
“Woo?” I laughed at the word. “No, that was yesterday. This, right now, is me trying to make you an accomplice in a bank robbery.”
Her mouth dropped open and I laughed. Not just me, but Ivy and Helen did as well.
“Are you insane?” she asked me.
“Only as much as you are. So…you coming or not?” I asked.
She just stared in shock before shaking her head. “Seventy-seven percent of all bank and casino robberies end in capture or death. Nineteen percent only make the annual salary of a cafe barista.”
“First, I’m glad to see you’ve thought about this—”
“I read!”
“Who casually reads up on the statics of bank robberies if they don’t want to rob a bank?” I questioned, my eyebrows rising in honest confusion.
“Who doesn’t read up on it when they do want to rob one?” she yelled at me. She was really getting worked up which just made her more beautiful and hilarious.
“Secondly,” I went on, ignoring her outburst, “in all your reading you must have noticed that four percent of robbers make it big. Think of it like Ocean’s 11, but with nine less people.”
“Why eleven and not twelve or thirteen?” Ivy asked, seriously thinking about it. I’d forgotten where we were for a moment.
I leaned over to look at her. “Ivy, is that really a question? Twelve and thirteen were horrible.”
“Plus, they were arrested in twelve and thirteen,” Helen said.
“One of them got arrested in eleven, too,” Ivy defended.
“But not for robbery,” Helen and I said at the same time.
I glanced down her, nodding. “Bloody well done.”
“What the hell is happening!” Dona screamed, drawing our attention to her. Her brothers looked at all of us as if we were modern art the MET museum. “They’re crazy…all of them!”
“Well, that’s hurtful,” I said, moving to lean on the edge of Helen’s chair and looking to her. “Apparently our fearless Dona is scared and I’m going to be late, so would you like help me rob a bank?”
She tilted her head to the side and pursed her lips; “Which bank—?”
“I am not scared; I’m just not an idiot!” Dona said to us.
“Neither am I. It’s not like I’m going to go in there shooting up the place. I do have plan. So, if I’m not an idiot, you must be a scaredy-cat.”
“I’m not five. That isn’t going to work on me.” She made a face.
“I’ll be leaving in ten minutes; if you have the time, I wouldn’t mind the help…” I said to Helen, winking at her before getting up and heading to the door, which opened as I approached.
“Coco, Rocky.” I nodded to the guards as they moved to tell Ethan whatever it was they needed too.
“The bank you’re robbing…” Ethan called out to me, finally speaking up. “Is it Wilson’s Bank?”
I glanced over my shoulder. “Why do you ask?”
“If so, I have another account for you to rob, unless you plan on taking the whole bank down?” he asked, placing his elbows on the tables and folding his hand over one another.
I turned and politely said, “You have two options. Option one: you may ask for a favor and be in my debt. Option two: you may send a representative on your behalf to do what you need while I am there, preferably a female one. Preferably.”
“See you eight minutes.” I looked over to the ladies.
DONATELLA
I looked at the paper in Ethan’s hand.
“What account do you need the money from?”
“Tobias’s,” he answered, looking up at me. “We just found where he was hiding the money the other cartels were paying him; great timing, wouldn’t you say?”
“Or a set up,” Wyatt added, not looking at me.
“Well, should I leave this to you or not?” Ethan asked. Now he was asking me when he should or shouldn’t act like a giant asshole.
“I’ll handle it,” I muttered, reaching over to take the paper before heading to door.
“Looks like someone really wanted to go,” Helen muttered then pretended to be interested in the detailing on her silverware when I turned to glare at her.
Ignoring them all, I headed towards the front doors, which were already open. Gabriel leaned against a chrome and black motorcycle, the make of which I didn’t know. The handlebars were high and there was just barely enough room for two.
“You may want to consider changing,” he said, looking down to the black Christian Louboutin peep-toe spike heels I was wearing which matched perfectly with my high-waisted black trousers, white crop-top, and chain necklaces. “Not that you don’t looks stunning, as always.”
Rolling my eyes, I turned to see one of the maids waiting, and I outstretched my hand to her. She looked confused.
“Hair-tie,” I finally said.
Nodding, she took her red hair out of the bun, picking off the strands on the band before giving it to me. Reaching up, I pulled my dark hair into a tight ponytail as I walked down the front stairs of the mansion, up to Gabriel and his bike.
“Let’s go. You’re on a time crunch, aren’t you?”
His eyebrow rose. “You aren’t going to argue? Demand to ride your own bike?”
“No matter how many times I tell you, you seem to think I am idiot,” I said, brushing him out of my way and throwing my leg over the bike before looking back at him. “I don’t know where we are going and if anything goes wrong, I’ll simply abandon you and there won’t be any trace that I was there. Let’s get this over with.”
“You look so beautiful,” he said randomly before sighing, “and yet I hardly notice because of all the venom coming out of your mouth.”
“Me and my beauty don’t exist for you or anyone else to notice,” I reminded him.
He grinned and I didn’t know why. He didn’t explain, instead handing me a helmet that I didn’t take it, much to his annoyance. He didn’t comment, instead throwing the helmet to one of the butlers. He took out two pairs of aviators, putting one on me and then himself before lifting his leg over and taking a seat in front of me.
“Don’t say hold on tight… It’s cliché,” I said into his ear, wrapping my arms around his torso. Even through his leather jacket I could feel his hard stomach. His whole body was nothing but solid muscle. I didn’t know why I noticed; it’s not like he didn’t look strong. But I did notice. Just like I noticed he smelled like peppermint.
“You don’t have to hold on tight,” he said, revving the engine. “You just have to make sure I can feel your breasts pressed up against my back.”
Before I could speak, he kicked off and we were on our way, gravel kicking up as he went around the fountain, then out the gates and on to the street. Like a bullet, we cut through wind. I could feel my heart pumping in my chest, though not from fear. I liked how he rode—fearlessly, dangerously, speeding faster and faster. He swerved through traffic, not stopping for anything or anyone. When others slowed down as
the light turned yellow, he sped up. If I wasn’t holding on as tightly as I was, I would have flown off long ago. I was thankful my heels fit my feet like a glove, because one wrong move and they’d come off before I did.
The wind and his speed made it impossible to speak, and I didn’t need to until he suddenly reached up and placed his hand over mine. He slowly moved our joined hands to the spot right over his heart. I wasn’t sure what he was trying to pull until I felt it. His heartbeat. It was racing just as hard as mine…and…and each beat came right after mine. My heart would beat, then his, and then mine, as if—as if they were having a conversation. I was so awed by it, I didn’t realize he wasn’t holding my hand there anymore… I was willingly leaving my hand over his heart.
Once I did realize, I dropped my hand back down to his torso, which made the bastard laugh. I couldn’t see his face, but his body shook and in return shook me.
He’s so annoying, I thought as I saw the W logo of Wilson bank on the glass tower up ahead. He didn’t slow down, and within a few seconds we passed it. Driving a couple blocks over to the new Obelisk Hotel, one of the tallest buildings in the city, he waved something to the guards as he drove into the underground parking garage. Not a single vehicle was there. Slowly, he pulled up in front of elevator, then stopped, parking, He cracked his neck and checked his watch.
“We don’t have much time,” he said seriously, much more serious than he’d been when he talked about this.
“This isn’t the bank,” I stated as I stepped down, brushing off my clothes.
“It isn’t,” he agreed, getting down too and taking my hand. I pulled away. He glanced over his shoulders. “You’re in unchartered territory, don’t fight me too much…”
“This is Chicago,” I stepped into his face. “It’s not unchartered. It’s my territory.”
“Yes, love, can we go now?” he asked, waving his hand towards the elevators.
I didn’t say anything, stepping into the elevator. He followed me inside. “Also, just because I’m not fighting you on that nickname doesn’t mean I enjoy it.”